Focus Order Question

Hi Stew and welcome to E-Learning Heroes 😊

Thanks for reaching out and sharing your question about the focus order.

The focus order that you define for each slide in Storyline 360 controls the reading order for screen readers as well as the tab order for interactive elements, such as buttons, hotspots, and data-entry fields. In your example, it would be My Title.

Here's some additional information:

Slide Content Is More Accessible

Hi Leslie.

I have a similar question. I have a slide with layers. In the Focus order list, the base layer objects are at the bottom of the list. If it's read from top to bottom (as you might expect), why are the base layer objects at the bottom, as these should be read out first. I know I can move them by creating a custom focus order, but that creates a lot of unnecessary work for any slides with layers. Or am I missing something here?

Hello, Dayn. Thanks for writing in!

Objects on layers will appear at the top of the default Focus Order list, but you could always create a custom order as you share. 

Here's how the new navigation works:

To help us explore further, could you share a sample slide or two with us via our private case link? It'll help us understand the project's design, and we can troubleshoot it with you to help make sure that the course is accessible.

Thanks for your replies

@Phil. Yes - that would be ideal. But for example, I have a slide with 6 layers, each with numerous objects. I have a preference for the order in which layers are read out by screen readers, that would make sense to learners. So I can easily change the layer order for the slide to change the Focus order (the layers get listed in order from top to bottom) and this is much quicker than changing the Focus order for each layer object.

However the base layer objects would almost always need to be read first, but they are at the bottom of the Focus order. This just seems wrong. @Katie - I know I can create a Custom Focus Order and move them to the top, but when you have a slide with lots of layers, each with lots of objects, this creates a very long Focus Order list and it takes ages to drag the base layer objects one-at-a-time to the top. Surely, they should be at the top by default?

This would be less of an issue, if we could multiple select objects and move them in the Focus Order list. I could then block select all the Base Layer objects and drag them to the top.

@Katie - I will upload a sample slide via the link.

Hi Lauren

Yes - Georvy has been helping with this, but there is an issue with Storyline that I think others should be aware of...

Base layer objects will appear at the bottom of the Focus Order list, on a slide with layers, unless  the Custom Focus order option is selected before a slide is built. I would expect most developers to fine-tune the Focus Order after a slide has been built. They are unlikely to remember to choose the Custom Focus order option beforehand. So in order to move the base layer objects to the top of the Focus order list (to be read first by screen readers), they would need to drag each item individually to the top in the list (very time consuming on slides with multiple layers), or rebuild the slide.

It would save us a lot of time if base layer objects were at the top of the Focus Order list by default, followed by Layer 1, Layer 2, Layer 3 etc (from bottom to top in the Slide Layers panel). At the moment, the Focus Order is generated the other way round, i.e. Layer 3, Layer 2, Layer 1, Base layer. This is counterproductive and could also have the effect of making Storyline content generally less accessible since I imagine that in many cases, the Focus Order won't be adjusted.

@Dayn I typed this in my last reply and deleted it, I thought it would be more logical to appear below as it would as you say ensure the focus order is more logical, and then thought for a lot of users by appearing at the top it may remind them to move the objects into the correct space.

The focus Order should be more flexible and allow you to drag and drop more than one item but also allow you to select and then click an object and choose insert below or above.

I think there is still a lot that can be done intuitively by Articulate here to reduce our workload on Accessibility. Slide masters are a real pain, I can place the items in order on the master but still have to do it on each slide.

I am sure this will improve as Accessibility is something Articulate are always working on, look at where we are now to the same time last year.

Hi Phil. I agree. Just being able to multiple select objects and move them together would save a ton of time.

I've submitted a feature request to change the default focus order to show base layer objects at the top and also to enable multiple objects to be selected and moved in the list. Would be great if others could do the same to bump this up the dev list. 

I agree with the comments here. As I go back to review the focus order of each slide in a course that I just created, I am finding that the default order is the reverse of what I would expect it to be (i.e., the objects on secondary layers are placed above objects on the base layer). So, it will take a lot of time to customize each one by manually moving the items up and down in the focus order list. I will submit an additional feature request as mentioned above to help boost this to developers. 

Thank you. 

Hi there, Domenick!

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, especially those related to accessibility needs.

That would certainly make editing easier, so I'll share this with the right team and notify you of any news.

Extra: Our accessibility journey isn't over as we continue to make progress in our work:

• To see what we're working on, check out our feature road map.

• Explore our comprehensive series of articles, All About Accessibility.